USA Hockey Magazine Introduces The Daily Development

USA Hockey Magazine is teaming up with the American Development Model to create The Daily Development, an online clearinghouse of news and information focused on long-term athlete development.

ADM regional managers and USA Hockey’s staff members have amassed an impressive collection of articles and information pertaining to the common sense benefits of long-term athlete development (LTAD) from some of the world’s foremost experts in the field.

The Daily Development will employ USA Hockey Magazine’s Twitter account (@usahmagazine, #dailydevelopment) to serve as a delivery system to the youth hockey community to tout the benefits of LTAD, which is the cornerstone of the ADM principles.

In addition, every article will be archived at USAHockeyMagazine.com to provide free and easy access.

May 21, 2013

Small-Sided Games Expand Sports Acumen

By Los Angeles Sports & FitnessWhen Massachusetts had a five-year period where 16,000 youngsters quit youth hockey before they turned 8, USA Hockey re-evaluated its programming. Roger Grillo, regional manager for USA Hockey’s developmental program and a former coach at Brown University said in a Boston Magazine interview that “The research shows that it’s burnout. It’s too serious too soon.’’ USA Hockey adopted the American Development Model to guide the development of its young players through a long term athlete development plan. Continue Reading

May 20, 2013

The Secret To Becoming A Great Athlete

By Mike Boyle

“I predict the sun will rise in the east. When it does I will then declare that I can control the movement of the sun.”

The big secret is that there is no secret. I have been saying this for years. There is always a guy ready to take credit for someone’s combination of hard work and great genetics. I hate the money grubbers who always claim to have found the holy grail of training. All they have really found is a list of high net worth parents who are willing to pay for a dream. I have trained the world’s best athletes for almost thirty years and I know there is no secret. Continue Reading

Youth Sports 101: Top 9 Tips From Moms And Dads

By Frank L. Smoll, Coaching and Parenting Young Athletes

Most mothers and fathers are productive contributors to their children’s well-being in sports. Unfortunately, however, the negative effects of a small minority of parents are all too obvious. The good news is that incidents of parental misbehavior are not the norm! In fact the majority of parents are able to channel their genuine concerns and good intentions in a way that heightens the value of their children’s sport experiences. Continue Reading

May 15, 2013

Hockey Training During the Adolescent Growth Spurt

By Total Hockey

Body changes during the Adolescent Growth Spurt (AGS) can temporarily diminish a player’s overall skill and speed and increase vulnerability to injuries. The effects of AGS and its effects on core strength, postural control and performance—coordination, skill, speed, quickness, agility and technique—can be enormous while athletes struggle to adjust to their rapidly changing bodies. Continue Reading

May 14, 2013

The Importance Of PlayBy Melissa HamGiving children the freedom to develop their own games improves their social skills and reasoning. Continue Reading

May 13, 2013

Too Much Of A Good Thing: Physicians Concerned About Emerging Trend Of Overuse Injuries

With about 45 million kids participating each year, organized sports play a prominent role in our society. Youth sports provide kids with exercise, entertainment and life lessons. Physicians across the country should be excited about the future of our health, but many are worried about an emerging trend of overuse injuries. Continue Reading

Joe Mauer, who played three sports in high school and is the only high school athlete to be named ALL-USA Player of the Year in two sports, says athletes may be focusing their efforts too early.

"I think kids are specializing way too soon," Mauer says. "Playing basketball and football really helped me in baseball, doing different movements and seeing different situations helped out. I think once you get to the college level, you have to specialize. Being a quarterback at Florida State would be a full-time job. It would be difficult to do baseball and football in that situation. But as far as high school, I played three sports and it seemed to work out pretty good." Continue Reading

May 8, 2013

Be a Winning Parent: 3 Tips for Parents of Young Athletes

By: i Skate Riedell

If you want your kids to come out of their youth sports experience a winner (feeling good about themselves and having a healthy attitude towards sports), then they need your help! You are an important part of the coach-athlete-parent team. If you play your position well, your child will learn the sport faster, perform better, have fun and have a greater self-esteem as a result. Continue Reading

May 7, 2013

How to Overcome Fear of Mistakes: One coache's story

By: Daniel Coyle

Scientists call it the "sweet spot" - that highly productive zone on the edge of our abilities where learning happens fastest. The problem, of course, is that the sweet spot doesn't feel sweet. In fact, it feels sour and uncomfortable, because being there you have to take risks and make mistakes. And most of us hate making mistakes.

Effectiveness of Early Sport Specialization Limited in Most Sports, Sport Diversification May Be Better Approach at Young Ages

By: American Medical Society for Sports Medicine

Ever-increasing requirements for success in competitive sports has created added pressure for young athletes to train with greater intensity at earlier ages. The goal to become the next Olympian or more commonly, to obtain a college scholarship, motivates many parents to encourage their children to specialize in one sport at a young age. This has resulted in an increased demand for year-round sport training programs, facilities and products. But is this approach really an effective way to generate long-term success in competitive athletics? Continue Reading

A few days ago I was sitting at our practice rink which was at the time being used by a youth association playing a PeeWee game. As I was watching the game I could hear the coach of one of the teams yelling for his 11-year-old forward to "dump it in."

Normally this is not such an unusual request, but in this instance there was not an opposing player within 2O feet of the kid and he had easy acess to gain the offensive zone. What's wrong with this scenario? When does winning override development? At what age is it OK to dump the puck in? Continue Reading

May 1, 2013

Athletes Make the Best Hockey Players

By: Minnesota Hockey (Let's Play Hockey)

On Nov. 3, thousands of kids participated in Try Hockey for Free Day. One young boy from New Hope, Minn., spent that Saturday morning flying around the ice, looking more like a second- or third-year Mite than a first-time skater. Yet, his mom claimed he could barely stand up the previous year when he was first introduced to skating. How could a child show so much progress over the course of a year with no additional ice time or hockey specific training?

The answer is simple. During the previous spring, summer and fall, this boy had been participating in other sports and activities, leading to major improvements in balance, muscle strength and coordination. These gains in athleticism translated into a notable difference in his skating ability. Continue Reading

April 30, 2013

The Value of Long-Term Development

By: Nathan Leslie (InsideEdge)

I grew up in small a prairie town. I lived my first 10 years a short skate down icy 8th Street to the rink in Carman, Manitoba. From November to March, the snow pack was so hard on the side streets that I could skate from the end our our driveway right to the front doors of the rink.

When temperatures hit the "without a toque, your ears will fall off" thresholds, school was automatically cancelled. A school closure coupled with an empty rink set the stage for competitive "mini tournaments" that lasted until we were too tired or hungry to play any longer. I don't recall having referees, coaching, matching jerseys or even full equipment. I do remember the thrill of scoring goals, making plays and dreaming of a bright hockey future. Continue Reading

April 29, 2013

Wanted for NHL, all hockeys: True Athletes; WHL coach Brent Sutter says kids who focus on hockey year-round are stunting their development

By: Jason Gregor (Edmonton Journal)

Today, more and more parents are enrolling their kids in hockey 10-12 months of the year, with the hope their children will become better players.

But is it working?

Brent Sutter says he feels that too much hockey, especially for young kids, will hinder them rather than help them. Continue Reading

Early Sports Specialization for Children Does Not Guarantee Results

By: Stacy Irvine (HuffPost Living Canada)

The research evidence supporting the importance of physical activity for children continues to grow in the scientific community. As a result of this, we have an increase in mainstream media articles related to youth and sport. Often, when this happens, articles and experts appear from everywhere, citing conflicting results and a confusing picture is presented to parents.Continue Reading

April 24, 2013

Kids’ Soccer: Allow mistakes and forget about winning

By: Jim Grove (Active for Life Magazine)

If your child is just starting to play soccer, the most important thing is to forget about the game result. This is the philosophy at the Total Soccer Systems Academy in Richmond, B.C. as they work with children in the U6 and U7 age groups.

The TSS Academy is well known for focusing on fundamental skill development at the young ages and producing talented young players. Their approach is a response to the fact that too many sports programs for kids under 12 spend too much time playing games, and not enough time learning and practicing the skills that help the children become better players.Continue Reading

April 23, 2013

Lacrosse skills helped Nieuwendyk's goal scoring

By: Dan Rosen (NHL.com)

TORONTO -- When Al MacInnis would wind up for one of his light-speed slap shots, almost everyone on the ice and even in the stands would duck or dive out of the way. Not Joe Nieuwendyk. He never worried about the flying frozen disc that was coming fast, hard and heavy off of MacInnis' blade hitting him, because most of the time he knew what the Hall of Fame defenseman was aiming for. "I think a lot of people feared Al's shot, so he was looking for me in those instances," Nieuwendyk said Monday morning from the Hockey Hall of Fame, several hours before he officially becomes an honored member like MacInnis, his former teammate in Calgary. "Every now and then you'd take one, but the reward was much greater than the danger in my opinion."

The reward came in the form of a deflection goal for Nieuwendyk thanks to the hand-eye coordination he crafted, developed and essentially perfected through years of playing box lacrosse. Continue reading

April 22, 2013

Are There Dangers to Focusing Solely on One Sport at a Young Age

By Sean Whitney (CoachUp)

What ever happened to the days of the three-sport youth athlete? Older generations can remember a time when a young athlete would take part in a number of different sports. For instance, a young boy in 1985 would play Football in the fall, Basketball in the winter, and Baseball in the spring/summer. However, now-a-days we see the trend changing completely to young athletes competing in a preferred sport all year round. The question is simple: does focusing solely on one sport give a young athlete a better chance to succeed and play at the highest levels? The logic makes perfect sense, if a young girl wants to be one of the best lacrosse players in the country she should play as much lacrosse as she can. Summer camps and physical training in the summer months, “fall ball” leagues in autumn, indoor leagues and more physical training in the winter, and she will be at her absolute best during her regular season in the spring, right? But there are fatal flaws in this logic that parents must recognize, no matter how much they want their child to succeed in his or her “favorite” sport.Continue reading

Follow USA Hockey Magazine as it chronicles the march to gold for the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Hockey Teams. USA Hockey Magazine editor Harry Thompson is in PyeongChang, South Korea to provide daily news, features and interviews from the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.